Hatfield: Fsu The Real Mccoy

FSU

"The best team I ever coached against was Miami in 1987," Hatfield said. "They beat [Arkansas) 51-7 in Little Rock when we were No. 10 [and Miami was No. 3]. They had 26 NFL players on that team.

"The thing florida State needs to do to be that good is to stay where they are all year. The scary thing is they'll probably get better."

Wide receiver Jason Davis, who had four catches for 52 yeards, remembers the Seminoles when Clemson beat them 34-23 in 1989.

"You just saw the No. 1 team in the country play like the No. 1 team against a Top 20 team that didn't play so good," he said. "They're the best team I've ever seen. Personnel-wise, they're not as good as the team we beat here five years ago, but they're better overall because they're better fundamentally."

The one Tiger that gave Florida State trouble all day was wide receiver Terry Smith, who had a career-high eight catches for 156 yards. His yardage total is the third highest in Clemson history and put him over the 2,000 yard mark for his career.

"We expected to win and it's a big change to expect to win and then to lose and lose that bad," Smith said. "They scored and then the next thing you know, they'd score again.

"Right off, I knew it would be a long day, but I didn't think this long of a day. We were just overwhelmed, but we didn't lose because of lack of effort."

Florida State's defensive backs were impressed with Smith.

"He made a lot of big catches," cornerback Clifton Abraham said, "but we were willing to give up some things occasionally to get additional pressure. When you left man-to-man, there were going to be some catches. We gave him some yards, but no points, and the points are what counts."

Quarterback Patrick Sapp who was recruited by Florida State as a linebacker/defensive back, was impressed with Florida State's defensive front, but not the secondary.

"The secondary isn't as good as peole say," said Sapp, who completed 15 of 30 for 223 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. "They're overrated. We have nine games left. We could still finsih No. 3 or No. 4 in the country. "We'll learn from this," he said. "Maybe we're not as good as some people thought, but we're not as bad as we looked, either."